Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June/Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso/pc/text/mac_text/1989/nb891113

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(NEWS)(APPLE)(LON)(00001)

APPLE: F-19 & K-19 ROLL-OUT NEXT MARCH}
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- News of Apple's plans for a
major spring '90 offensive continue to leak out from 'close to
company' sources. It now seems that Apple will release a machine
called the Mac IIXI - code-named the F-19 - in March/April next year,
when it will roll out the long-awaited System 7.0 Mac operating
system software. Three months after that, Apple is expected to
launch a low-end Mac - code name K-12 - based around a 16MHz
68030 microprocessor. The three-slot K-12 is expected to feature
much-simplified electronics from the existing Mac IICX

Apple President John Sculley is quoted in Government Computer
News (GCN), a US publication, as saying that the F-19 will be
Posix-compliant and will come bundled with A/UX, Apple's version
of Unix for the government market.

"We will support the Posix specification and we are also going to
be supporting trusted systems in OSI. We think the combination
of those things, along with X/Windows, for those who need it with
Posix, offers a pretty good sweep of technologies for the federal
market," Sculley told GCN.

Sculley's comments are backed up by an article in Electronic
News, which quotes Jean-Louis Gassee, Apple's senior vice
president, as saying that Apple is working on a 68040-based Mac.

And what does Apple UK have to say about all this news? "It's not
our policy to comment on future products."

(Steve Gold/19891114/Press Contact: Frank O'Mohoney, Apple
Computer UK - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(APPLE)(TYO)(00002)

MAC VIRUS INFECTS COMPUTERS OF UNIV. OF TOKYO}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 OCT 30 (NB) -- A computer virus has
invaded six Macintosh computers at seismic and ocean research
institutes of the University of Tokyo, and some information has been
lost.

At the University's Ocean Research Institute, researchers
found that their screen images were sometimes in disorder and
their data suddenly disappeared while using their four Macintosh
computers. The situation had persisted since the beginning of September.

In order to kill the phenomenon, they acquired a vaccine program
called Interferon this October, and found that their computers were
infected with N Virus. They subsequently wiped out the culprit.

The N Virus often appears in Macintosh software, and is
said to generally do no harm to data. Though Fujitsu's host
computer, which stores many years of ocean geological data, is
connected with the infected computers, an institute
official claims that it cannot be damaged by the virus.

At the Seismological Research Institute, on the other hand,
a virus was found to have invaded the Macintosh computers in
December last year. As a result of investigation, it was found
that two viruses called N Virus and Score invaded two
computers and destroyed almost all the programs. The researchers
took about three weeks to recover the lost information.

The computers used to predict earthquakes in the institute
are said to be isolated from any other systems. They have neither
been infected nor is there any chance of it, according to researchers.

This is the first time that a virus has caused damage to computers
used by a public institution in Japan and it is causing great
concern in Japan's increasingly information-oriented society.

A computer crime analyst suggests that the virus was carried on
software one of the researchers brought from a foreign country.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(SFO)(00003)

APPLE DECLARES INCREASED DIVIDEND}
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- Apple Computer
announced an increased dividend of 11 cents a share for the
quarter ending September 29, 1989.

The dividend represents Apple's 11th consecutive dividend and is
payable to shareholders by December 15, 1989.

Apple announced earnings of $454 million ($3.5 per share) against
revenues of $5.28 billion for the year as a whole which ended
September 29, 1989.

(Peter Vekinis/19891111)


(NEWS)(APPLE)(LAX)(00004)

LAUGHS NOW AVAILABLE ON APPLE}
LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 06 (NB) -- Keyboard
Comedy, the folks who brought computer comedy to the screens of
IBM and compatible PC users has extended the fun to include
Macintosh users as well.

For those who feel the need of a comic pick-me-up while working
on their computer, $24.95 buys "The Computer Comic," a program
that displays jokes in a pop-up window. The program can be
called up from any application and will allow the user to return
to that application exactly where he left it when he has had
enough laughs. According to company President Josh Parker, the
jokes are all new, never-before-published, penned by Hollywood's
top writers. While it is designed for any Macintosh user, there
are some jokes that Parker describes as "tasteful adult
material."

Computer Comic contains hundreds of jokes on a wide range of
topics. The program requires 71K of disk space for the joke text
file --a hard disk is not required.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Josh Parker, Keyboard
Comedy, 619-450-9305)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00001)

WYSE TECHNOLOGY $200 MILLION TAKE-OVER BID?}
TAIPEI, TAIWAN, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- Wyse Technology's US
headquarters has bowed to the inevitable and confirmed industry
rumours that it is the subject of take-over talks with a third
party.

At the same time as Wyse's US headquarters made its announcement
late last week, Mitac, the Taiwanese PC manufacturer, announced
that is part of the group bidding around $200 million for the San
Jose, California-based company.

The take-over story broke on Wednesday when the San Francisco
Chronicle newspaper quoted Asian sources as saying that a $20 per
share offer was progressing.

After initially denying the rumours, and trying to quash the
story, Wyse announced late on Thursday that it was having
discussions with a third party regarding its acquisition. A share
price of $10 was quoted. On hearing news of the announcement,
Wyse's US share price soared 75 cents to reach the $9-00 mark.

At the same time as Wyse's announcement was being made, the
Reuters news wire issued a story quoting Barry Wu, a spokesman
for Mitac's Taipei, Taiwan headquarters, as saying Mitac is part
of the consortium bidding for Wyse.

"Yes, we're part of that take-over bid, but this project has not
been finalised and I cannot give you more information," he said,
adding that the other consortium members include China Trust,
Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corporation, USI Far East Corporation
(Taiwanese government agency) and several other companies.

In the UK, Wyse Technology was playing down the announcements,
preferring only to confirm what had been said, but adding nothing
else.

In a related story, Wyse is expected to announce a range of new
machines at Comdex Fall this week. These will include an Intel
25MHz 80486-based PC, possibly with the EISA bus system, say
informed sources.

(Steve Gold/19891114/Press Contact: Phil Underwood, Wyse UK -
Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00002)

TOSHIBA TO START TOTAL ASIC PRODUCTION OVERSEAS}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 4 (NB) -- Toshiba will produce one kind of
semiconductor solely abroad for the first time. Toshiba plans
to build a volume production factory for ASIC (application-
specific integrated circuit) chips in the U.S. and is seeking a site
on the West Coast. Toshiba estimates the total investment
to be 30 to 40 billion yen ($210 to 280 million).

Toshiba will mainly produce gate array and standard ASIC cells there.

Toshiba, which holds the top share in the one-megabit dynamic
random access memory market, says ASICs are its second most lucrative
semiconductor business following the memory division.

Toshiba intends to boost chip production amount in foreign nations
to 10 percent, including ASIC production, in order to mitigate the U.S.-
Japan semiconductor dispute.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00003)

EPSON INVESTS HEAVILY IN CHIP OPERATIONS}
NAGANO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 7 (NB) -- Seiko-Epson has decided to
invest about 40 billion yen ($280 million) in its semiconductor
business during the next fiscal year in March 1991.

The firm has invested 10 billion yen ($70 million) annually in the
chip business for the past few years, and will invest 30 billion yen
($210 million) more in the submicron factory of its subsidiary
Tohoku Epson, which is under construction.

The factory will be completed at the end of next year, and
will get into full operation by spring, 1991.

Seiko-Epson achieved about 70 billion yen ($490 million) worth of
chip production in last fiscal year, and aims to attain 100
billion yen ($700 million) as early as possible, by increasing the
production of ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) and
SRAM (static random access memory) chips.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TYO)(00004)

BUSINESSLAND LANDS IN JAPAN}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- The second largest personal
computer distributor in the U.S., Businessland, based in California,
has agreed with one of Japan's largest software distributors,
Soft Bank, to set up a joint venture this year.

The new venture will be called Businessland Japan, and is expected
to be set up by year's end, and to start business next spring.

The initial capital investment will be 400 to 500 million yen
($2.8 to 3.4 million) and Businessland will hold more than 51 percent
of the new firm. Also, NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Sony, which plan
to sell their personal computers through the joint venture, will
invest about a few hundred million yen for it.

The business will be mainly targeted at provision of service for the
corporate arena, such as selection, sales and set-up of hardware,
software, and peripheral units, as well as construction and
maintenance of LANs (local area networks).

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(WAS)(00005)

AT&T ORGANIZES FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPUTER BUSINESS}
MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 7 (NB) -- AT&T
Computer Systems - International, a newly formed division of
AT&T, has been organized to target international computer sales
for the telephone giant.

In the new chain of command, Michael M. Pasquale, the vice
president for international sales, Ben Scott, the president of
AT&T Canada, Inc., and Neil Vasant, international business
development director, will now report to John E. Boyd, the head
of the new group and former vice president of complementary
marketing.

Forming part of the new organization will be Istel, the British
technology services business that AT&T purchased last month.

(John McCormick/1989118/Press Contact: Mary Ward, AT&T,
201-221-5290)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00006)

ATARI UK GEARS UP FOR CHRISTMAS}
SLOUGH, ENGLAND, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- Atari UK is claiming success
for its recent UKP 250,000 national press business advertising
campaign. The company's UK business division says that several
million pounds-worth of business has been written in the past
two weeks.

"The business-is-war theme suggests that no company can afford to
be complacent about retaining a competitive edge in the market-
place, The campaign builds on the past Atari success of producing
high-quality products at low prices by featuring computers of
value and technical innovation," said Atari UK in a statement
last week.

Atari isn't stopping at a UKP 250,000 advertising spend. The ad
campaign will continue through this month with ads in the London
Times, Financial Times and Sunday Times, as well as the Daily
Telegraph.

The advertising strategy changes nearer Christmas, however, when
Atari moves to the TV screen with a UKP 2 million campaign to
tell the UK that Atari is a kingpin in the home and business
computer marketplace.

Newsbytes notes that this is a far cry from the US, where
Commodore is trying the same tactics - albeit on a larger scale -
to try and impress everyone that its products are better.

(Steve Gold/19891114/Press & Public Contact: D'Este du Plesis,
marketing manager, Atari UK - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00007)

GOUPIL PORTABLES HEADED FOR AMERICAN STORES}
PARIS, FRANCE, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- The SMT Goupil Group of France
has secured a major distribution deal with Computer Peripherals
Incorporated (CPI), the U.S. distributor. Terms of the deal call
for CPI to distribute the Goupil Golf range of portable PCs in
North America via its 3,000 dealers.

The deal will be formally announced at Comdex Fall in Las Vegas
this week and marks the first time that the Goupil Golf portable
PC series has been distributed in the US.

SMT Goupil is a major manufacturer of PCs which markets its
machines throughout Europe. The Goupil Gold is a small footprint
portable desktop with an advanced LCD screen that is VGA-
compatible.

(Steve Gold/19891214/Press Contact: Roger Charters, John Brace
and Associates - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00008)

NIXDORF LOSES $91 MILLION BUT DENIES TAKEOVER}
FRANKFURT, WEST GERMANY, 1989 NOV 11 (NB) -- Nixdorf reports
a pretax group loss of DM168 ($91 million) for the third quarter,
effectively admitting that its recovery plan is not working.

Observers suggest the computer firm was hobbled by stiff price
competition and missed trends in the industry. Nixdorf had
counted on a second half recovery after implementing a
restructuring a year ago.

The third quarter results brought Nixdorf's pretax operating
loss to a total of DM 465 million on nine months of sales,
amounting to $3.67 billion, up 5 percent from a year ago.

The financial statements showed DM 31 million in extraordinary
income through property sales as well as charges on inventory
write-offs.

''Under consideration of these write-downs, the operating
result was within expectations, however sales performance
was below par,'' a company spokesman said.

Nixdorf has cut 2,000 jobs since the end of last year and
some suggest worse is to come. Its payroll and production costs
have increased while other operating costs were limited to a
one percent rise, the company said.

Nixdorf last week issued a statement to its employees saying
that by the end of 1990 the number of jobs at the product
development division worldwide will be cut to 2440 from
the current level of 2880.

The number of people in production sectors would be affected as
well, Nixdorf said. Half of the cuts will be in Germany and half
abroad. In September, Nixdorf had 29,563 people on its payroll
worldwide, down from a high of 31,260 in November 1988.

Take-over speculation buzzed in computer circles but
Nixdorf has strongly denied the company is a takeover candidate.

Financial analysts held a high esteem for Nixdorf until
recently. It was said Nixdorf was a model for West Germany's
growth industries with an aggressive young management
attracting the attention of West German investors after
the company went public in 1984.

Nixdorf thrived as a niche supplier of workstations and
software for the banking sector and mid-sized industries
as well as computer cash registers for retailers.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00009)

DATAPOINT FIGHT ENDS}
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- Datapoint Corp.
has announced that Martin S. Ackerman's consent solicitation to
remove the Datapoint board of directors has been unsuccessful and
Mr. Ackerman has publicly conceded defeat.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Ross Laughead,
Datapoint, 512-699-7938)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00010)

TOUCHSTONE SOFTWARE'S 3RD QTR NET UP}
SEAL BEACH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- TouchStone
Software has announced net earnings of $3,335 for the third
quarter ended Sept. 30, the company's third profitable quarter in
a row and seventh profitable quarter out of the last eight.

The third quarter showed earnings-per-share of $0.000006, up 20
percent from the same period a year ago.

For the first nine months of the year, TouchStone has announced
record net earnings of $42,986 a 44 percent increase over last
year's $29,836.

Revenues rose 34 percent in the first nine months from $820,350
reported in 1988 to $1,102,377.

TouchStone designs, develops and markets computer connectivity
and utility software and also has a product for the retail market
called CheckIt.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Marchele Carlson,
TouchStone Software, 213-598-7746)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00011)

COMPUTER AUTOMATION PUTS ATE BACK ON BLOCK}
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 08 (NB) -- Computer
Automation has announced that negotiations for the sale of its
Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) business to Technology Marketing,
Inc., have been terminated.

The two companies have been unable to reach an agreement on price
and terms for the sale. Computer Automation still plans to sell
off the ATE unit and is looking for new potential buyers.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: William Osmundsen,
Computer Automation, 714-833-8830)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00012)

TAKEOVER BID FOR DATAPRODUCTS IN THE WORKS}
WOODLAND HILLS, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- DPC
Acquisition Group, a New York investment group led by Crescott
Inc. is trying to arrange financing for a bid to takeover
computer printer manufacturer Dataproducts.

Dataproducts chairman and CEO, Jack C. Davis has indicated that
should the group obtain financing, Dataproducts will let the
shareholders decide whether or not to accept the bid. Sources at
Dataproducts, however, are skeptical of the investment groups
ability to secure the necessary financing.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LAX)(00013)

TI TO EXPAND ITALIAN OPERATIONS}
ROME, ITALY, 1989 NOV 7 (NB) - Texas Instruments Italia SpA has
entered into a four year, $1.2 billion investment program with
the Italian government under which TI will upgrade and expand its
submicron CMOS process capabilities and upgrade both its
manufacturing in electrical controls and its consumer operations
in Italy.

A significant portion of the investment will come from Italian
government incentives to TI. Key features of the program include
the addition of production capacity for DRAM chips at TI's
Avezzano facility. The Avezzano site, currently under
construction, was previously announced as TI's first metal-oxide
semiconductor (MOS) memory wafer fabrication plant in Europe.
Also to be added at Avezzano is an applications research center.

The newly expanded operations will also include the upgrade of
electrical controls production at the Aversa facility and
increased calculator production at Cittaducale. The program
also includes research projects that will be conducted with
Italian universities and research institutions.

TI's move in Italy is designed to improve TI's ability to meet
the needs of the company's European customers. It is the latest
step in a worldwide expansion of operations that in 1988 and 1989
have included expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in both
the US and Japan, announcement of the CMOS facility at Avezzano
and a joint venture for semiconductor manufacturing in Taiwan.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Terri West, Texas
Instruments, 214-995-3481)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(ATL)(00014)

DAYTON FIRM TO DISTRIBUTE F3 FORMS AUTOMATION FROM BLOC}
DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., NOVEMBER 9 (NB) -- Reynolds and Reynolds
of Dayton will license and resell the F3 Forms Automation
System from Bloc Development of Coral Gables, Florida.

Reynolds will also use the software in its production and sales
offices.

F3 is a forms-processing product for which Reynolds,
which makes business forms, was a beta-tester for Bloc.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Bloc Development,
Charles F. Fistel, 305-567-9931)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(BRU)(00015)

ISRAELI FIRMS CONSOLIDATE TO STEM LOSSES}
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL, 1989 NOV 11 (NB) -- An Israeli military computer
producer confirmed plans to acquire a majority stake of Elscint, a
specialist in medical diagnostic imaging systems, to resolve the
latter's heavy debt burden.

Elbit Computer and Elscint are quoted on the NASDAQ and the New York
Stock Exchange respectively and are subsidiaries of Elron
Electronics Industries, another Israeli company quoted on NASDAQ.

The deal, an official said, should finally clear up the mess
left when Elscint collapsed three years ago - only to be rescued
by Israeli banks and the Israeli Government.

Elbit, which showed a $5.7 million net profit in the first half, will
pay $20 million in cash for a 45 percent share in Elscint.

For the banks, the deal comes at a time when they have been
faring large losses. Elron itself is owned by subsidiaries of the
Israeli Discount Bank, the nation's third largest.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(LON)(00016)

NORSK DATA SPINS OFF DOLPHIN}
OSLO, NORWAY, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- Norsk Data, the troubled
Norwegian computer manufacturer, has announced plans to sell off
Dolphin, its research and development subsidiary. Shares in
Dolphin will be offered to Norsk Data's shareholders to raise $13
million for the parent company.

Norsk will retain a 40 per cent stake in the de-merged company
which will have a total value of around $30 million.

Dolphin was originally set up in February of this year, initially
with the intention of seeking partners to help meet development
costs. The moves follow a steady decline in Norsk's profitability
since 1987.

(Steve Gold/19891114)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00017)

CONTROL DATA AUSTRALIA BOUGHT OUT}
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- The managing director and
director of operations of Control Data Australia have teamed up to buy
the US parent's Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries. The sale
will take place on November 30 when AUS$30M to AUS$40M will
change hands and the company will become Miden Pacific

Managing Director Philip Michod said, "Many companies have
set up in Australia and then sold the companies to overseas
firms they distribute for, but we believe our move is the
first time anyone here has actually bought out the farm."

Mr Michod and his Director of Operations Doug Dent will own
90 percent of the company and 10 percent will be distributed
among 150 of the staff. Miden Pacific will have Control Data
distribution rights in Australia for seven years.

Mr Michod said the sale came about for a number of reasons
including restructuring of the AUS$450M write off of the
STA supercomputer business, Australia's distance from CD
headquarters, and the fact that CD would have a better
chance of winning defence contracts if the bidding
distributor was Australian owned.

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00018)

AUSTRALIA'S IMAGINEERING REPORTS BIG LOSS}
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Two weeks after
Australia's biggest distribution house Imagineering sold 42
percent of the firm to a Hong Kong company, it has reported a
loss of AUS$461,000 and an 18 percent revenue increase to
AUS$235M for the financial year ended August 31. This compares
to a profit of $6.3M on revenues of $196M recorded last year.

Managing Director Jodee Rich attributed the loss to Imagineering's
rapid expansion, a AUS$7M interest bill, and trading difficulties
in Australia.

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00019)

AMSTRAD DUMPED IN VICTORIA}
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Victoria's largest chain of
discount electrical retailers, Billy Guyatts, has dropped Amstrad
PCs and will sell Kambrook PCs instead.

John Reardon, manager of Kambrook's Office automation division,
said, "It was a service problem. Apparently they had some pretty
high failure rates." For Kambrook, this could be worth around
AUS$4.5M.

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00020)

FUJITSU OPENS SOFTWARE HQ IN AUSTRALIA}
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- The offices of Fujitsu
Australia Software Technology have been opened in Sydney.

FAST will use Australia as the worldwide research and
development center for much of Fujitsu's English-language
software. FAST is a subsidiary of Fujitsu Japan, and is the
first facility of its type to be established outside Japan.

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(SYD)(00021)

BUMPER YEAR FOR AMDAHL AUSTRALIA}
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- The local subsidiary of
the US company Amdahl announced last week that it was having
its "best year ever."

Amdahl's local communications manager, Tony Reid said, "We're
going to achieve 30 to 40 percent above our budget this year
which will see the Pacific region contribute 10 percent to
the total US revenue." Reid attributed the Australian success
to Amdahl's 5990 mainframe which has helped snare large
government contracts.

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(BUSINESS)(TOR)(00022)

ACCUGRAPH LOSS REDUCED}
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- Software developer
Accugraph has announced marginally higher revenues and a reduced
loss for its fiscal year ended August 31. The company lost C$5.5
million on revenues of C$15.5 million. Last year, Accugraph lost
C$8.2 million on revenues of C$14.7 million.

Accugraph has gone through a major restructuring in the past
year, said Hector Holguin, chairman and chief executive, in a
statement. Originally focused on graphics software, the company
has recently emphasized facilities management applications for
corporate real estate. Its key product in this area is
MountainTop, to which Accugraph this year added relational
database capabilities.

(Grant Buckler/19891110/Press Contact: Hector Holguin, Accugraph,
915-581-1171)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00001)

BOSTON SLATES 1990 COMPUTER BOWL}
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 7 (NB) -- The
Computer Museum has announced the time, place, and members
of the contending teams for the second Computer Bowl, hosted by
the Computer Museum and partially underwritten by the Association
for Computing Machinery.

In last year's battle of the bits, the East Coast team bested the
laid-back West Coast players in this computer trivia contest
which was featured on two episodes of The Computer Chronicles TV
show.

This year's East Coast team will be captained by Patrick J.
McGovern, founder and chairman of the IDG publishing company, and
will feature William Foster, president and CEO of Stratus
Computer Inc., Robert Frankston, chief scientist, Lotus
Development Corp., Edward Fredkin, president, Capital
Technologies, and Russell Planitzer, chairman of the board, Prime
Computer.

The West Coast team will be captained by venture capitalist John
Doerr, and he will be backed up by Stewart Alsop II, editor and
publisher of the PC Letter, a young fellow named Gates from the
obscure Microsoft software company, Charles House from Hewlett-
Packard, and Lawrence Tesler of Apple.

Mitch Kapor, chairman of ON Technologies Inc. and the highest
scorer in the 1988 Computer Bowl, will moderate and ask the
questions.

The Computer Bowl will again be carried by Computer Chronicles
and will be held at the World Trade Center, Boston, Massachusetts
on April 27, 1990. The good-natured contest is held to raise
money for the Computer Museum.

Sponsors are actively sought, so if your company wants to be the
purveyor of the official lighter, soft-drink, fax, or law firm of
the Computer Bowl, contact the Museum.

For those who missed last year's contest, a complete set of the
questions and answers is available for $3 by writing to: The
Computer Bowl, The Computer Museum, 300 Congress Street, Boston,
Massachusetts 02210 (U.S.A.).

(John McCormick/1989118/Press Contact: Gail Jennes, The Computer
Museum, 617-426-2800, X341)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(WAS)(00002)

FRANKLIN MAKES A HAND-HELD ELECTRONIC BIBLE}
MT. HOLLY, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 07 (NB) -- Franklin
Computer, the folks who brought you the hand-held electronic
dictionary, has announced its new electronic Holy Bible, King
James Version will be available for the Christmas season.

The hand-held unit, measuring 5.5 square inches and weighing
13 ounces, allows users to locate any passage, chapter or verse
of the Old or New Testament by typing in key words or phrases.
Phonetic spelling capability and built-in search thesaurus speed
searches.

(Don S. Johnson/19891110)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LON)(00003)

MINIPOL SECURITY EVENT ATTRACTS 7,000 ATTENDEES}
LE BOURGET, FRANCE, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) --Last week saw the fifth
annual Minipol security exhibition taking place at Le Bourget in
France. The four-day event is said to have had more than 7,000
attendees, almost all of whom were less than keen on divulging
which companies they represented.

More than 350 companies showed off their wares at the event,
which was restricted by invitation only. This year was the first
time that US security companies attended.

The key topic of the event this year was surveillance. Due to the
increase in world terrorism, surveillance devices are now big
business, both from the point of view of watching prisoners, and
from people worried about their own security.

Newsbytes had planned to provide an exclusive report from the
Minipol exhibition, but members of the press were subject to
careful scrutiny, and non-French journalists were automatically
barred from attending.

(Steve Gold/19891114)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(BRU)(00004)

INDIAN SOFTWARE SETS UP IN WEST GERMANY}
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1989 NOV 11 (NB) -- More wide-scale
lower-cost Third World software development came a step
closer to reality after India decided to set up a software trade
center in Frankfurt to open early next year.

The move followed the success of Delhi-based CMC Ltd., a software
developer which won a contract to revamp London's Underground
subway timetable system, over competition from all over Europe.

A London Transport spokeswoman said CMC's tender was 'very
competitive' and the company had offered the most radical
enhancement of the Tube's Computer-Aided Railway timetable
System (CART). ''London Transport was very impressed,'' she said.

The current CART system is written in Fortran and runs under
MVS. The new system, due to be available next summer, will be
redesigned around the Ingres RDBMS, running on Unix-based Sun
workstations.

Development will be done in Delhi, India, but some of CMC's
2,000 staff will go to London to implement the system.

Indian programmers, an official told Newsbytes, earn only a fifth of
European rates, although total project costs average about 30 percent
less than European rates.

CMC apparently won the deal on the recommendations of major
American clients such as Nabisco and Kellogg's.

The European Commission earlier this year backed Indian government-
sponsored seminars of 14 Indian software companies which took place
in London, Paris and Amsterdam. Alban de Villepin, head of the
EC's India desk, told Newsbytes that he is welcoming the Indian
plan to set up a software trade center in Frankfurt. ''It is not our
intention to fund this center but we might help them in the first
phase,'' de Villepin said. ''They drew an extremely positive
result out of the seminars which we fully supported.''

Meanwhile, S.P. Mann, attache at the Indian embassy in
Brussels for EC-relations, confirmed a little delay in setting up
the venture. ''We expect the center to be up and running very
soon,'' he said, acknowledging that spring 1990 would be a likely
date. The center will be self-supportive and will consist of
Indian software associations," Mann said.

The European Commission is backing the drive as a way of
cutting both India's massive trade imbalance with Europe and
Europe's software backlog. ''India has more highly educated programmers
than it knows what to do with,'' a report said, adding that so
much work is available that no jobs will be threatened in Europe.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111/Press Contact : CMC, London :
Sudhir Saxena, 441-209-1116)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00005)

CENTECH AIMS TO BE 100 PERCENT AMERICAN-MADE}
WEST JORDAN, UTAH, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 03 (NB) -- Cenna Technology
(more commonly known as Centech) has nearly doubled its
facility space to increase production, especially for its 3.5-
inch diskettes.

The company is aiming to be a totally American-made diskette
company and this expansion is expected to ensure that the company
is completely "made in the USA" by 1990. According to company
president and founder, Dr. Houshang Rasekhi, everything from
computer diskettes to manufacturing equipment will have US
components by the first of the year. At that time, Centech will
be one of the few truly American-made diskette companies.

Centech can accomplish this total Americanization because Dr.
Rasekhi has designed disk manufacturing equipment--folders, end-
sealers, punches, certifiers,as well as hub-ring and label
applicators among others. Rasekhi has been able to design and
build his manufacturing equipment for far less than the cost of
similar equipment purchased elsewhere. Under Rasekhi's design,
all Centech diskette manufacturing machines are automated and
wherever possible, robotic.

Much of Centech's output is private label diskette production for
companies like Rockwell International, AT&T, Texaco, DuPont,
Price Waterhouse and Citibank. Centech pioneered production of
color floppy disks and continues to offer a very large selection
of colors.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Glen Tanner, Centech,
801-255-3999)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00006)

ARTISOFT, XIRCOM DEVELOP POCKET ETHERNET ADAPTER DRIVER}
TUCSON, ARIZONA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 01 (NB) -- Artisoft (Tucson,
AZ) and Xircom (Woodland Hills, CA) have announced the
development of a Pocket Ethernet Adapter driver to AI-LANBIOS,
Artisoft's adapter-independent NETBIOS.

Xircom is scheduled to begin shipping the driver before the end
of this month. The new driver opens up the NETBIOS-compatible
network market for Xircom's Pocket Ethernet Adapter because it
allows a user to easily connect a laptop or desktop computer into
an existing NETBIOS-compatible ethernet network that is running
AI-LANBIOS.

The Pocket Ethernet Adaptor is an external controller designed to
work with any IBM compatible PC including laptop models. It is
about the size of a garage-door opener and connects directly to a
PC's parallel port, requiring no internal expansion slots. By
using the parallel port, problems connected with configuration of
switches and interrupt and address conflicts are avoided.

AI-LANBIOS can be used with any NETBIOS-compatible network
operating system as long as an AI-NETBIOS driver has been written
to the network adapters.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Debbie Daun, Artisoft,
602-293-6363 x 215)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(LAX)(00007)

ROAD WARRIOR BATTERY PACKS OFF AND TRAVELLING}
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 06 (NB) -- Computer
Products Plus (CP+) has introduced two models of Road Warrior
Portable Battery Packs.

Maintenance-free, these battery packs provide power for most
laptops including those based on 286, 386 and Motorola 68000
chips. When used with the CP+ AC inverter or DC to DC adaptors,
the Road Warrior portable battery packs provide enough energy to
operate AC powered 286 laptops for up to an hour and a half with
the 8 Amp version and over two hours with the 12 Amp model. A
built-in charger is included to recharge the battery packs
overnight. The Road Warrior Battery Packs also include a nylon
shoulder tote and an output socket.

The 8 Amp model sells for $139.95 and the 12 Amp version is
listed at $169.95.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Jerry Kalman, Kalman
Communications, 213-829-5664)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TYO)(00008)

FUJITSU TO PUSH FM-TOWNS}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- FM-Towns, the machine created to
defeat NEC's domination of the Japanese personal computer market,
has been upgraded and released for Christmas and New Year sales.
The machines were modified to include a hard disk drive, and the
access time for CD-ROM drives has also been reduced.

Initially the machine was developed for family users, but Fujitsu
is aiming at the business market now by adopting industry-standard
hard disk drives.

Fujitsu expects to sell 65,000 units by the end of the fiscal
year in March and 120,000 units of sales in the initial year.

In March, 1989, FM-Towns was released with much fanfare as the
first personal computer with standard CD-ROM drive. However, it
was seen as too advanced since delivery of software for the CD-ROM
drive lagged far behind.

Fujitsu has also called upon its Hyper Media Development Center to
develop business software packages for the FM-Towns, and
promises that four new games, including Dungeon Master, will be
introduced via the San Francisco-based FM-Towns Support Center.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00009)

BUSINESS SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION LAUNCHED IN AUSTRALIA}
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Ashton-Tate, Autodesk
Australia, Lotus Development, Microsoft and Wordperfect
Pacific have formed the Business Software Association of
Australia, or BSAA, and will spend AUS$100,000 in an effort
to educate Australians about software laws.

The money will be spent on a telephone hotline, a media
advertising campaign, and 3000 booklets. At the campaign launch
last week, Microsoft Managing Director Daniel Petre said, "500,000
PCs will be sold in Australia next year, but when only half of them
will be sold with software, that's a pretty frightening figure."

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(SYD)(00010)

AUSTRALIA: CHIP RESEARCH RENTAL LAB OPENED}
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- An applications specific integrated
circuit laboratory is to be opened in Melbourne this week.

The laboratory has three Sun workstations and Daisy computer-aided
design software, and will be rented out to development firms. It was
set up by Cima Electronics with help from the federal government.

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(GENERAL)(TOR)(00011)

XEROX CANADA RECEIVES QUALITY AWARD}
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 NOV 7 (NB) -- Xerox Canada was the
first recipient of a new national Quality Award given by the
Canadian Department of Industry, Trade and Technology. The award,
an addition to the department's Canada Awards for Business
Excellence, was presented at an Ottawa reception. The competition
was open to all Canadian companies, and judges were a team of
high-ranked executives.

(Grant Buckler/19891109/Press Contact: Xerox Canada, 229-3769)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(BRU)(00001)

AMERICAN SOFTWARE ATTACK ON FRENCH PIRATES}
PARIS, FRANCE, 1989 NOV 11 (NB) -- The American Business
Software Association filed charges against two of France's
biggest companies for failing to pay software licenses on
its members' products.

Paribas, a large French bank, and Telediffusion de France
are the targets of BSA which apparently have not been
honoring software license agreements.

Lotus development and Ashton-Tate, as well as Microsoft,
charged that both companies did not pay its full share, they said.

BSA President Douglas Philips said, ''BSA and its members
will step up their actions in the coming months. Other
charges will be filed and will result in new court orders.''

This marks a new direction for BSA in its move against pirates of
software. Although the BSA is crediting French justice as
''one of the finest in the world regarding software
protection,'' it nevertheless states that ''the law often
is not applied due to a lack of control over users.''

French officials say that sometimes it is difficult to follow
the logic of software pricing. A French RDBMS
for the Apple Macintosh is sold at half price in the United
States than in France.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(SFO)(00002)

AUTODESK CLAIMS PIRACY CRACK-DOWN WORTH IT}
SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- Autodesk says its
antipiracy campaign has paid off royally, to the tune of $1 million
dollars since the program's inception a year ago.

Autodesk has instituted various campaigns overseas to educate the
software-buying public and institutions on U.S. copyright laws,
and cooperated with overseas authorities to halt and prosecute
piracy cases. The campaign also extended to pirates here in the
U.S., who Autodesk Special Projects Director Sandra Boulton calls
"softlifters." She estimates that for every copy of AutoCAD sold,
7 to 10 illegal copies are made.

Autodesk is distributing anti-piracy kits which provide information
on the illegality of copying software, as well as guidelines for
software usage.

(Wendy Woods/19891110/Press Contact: Tabatha Bonetti, 415-
332-2344)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(BRU)(00003)

EUROPEAN PLAY FOR HDTV}
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- A meeting of the 12 European
Ministers of Telecommunications has resulted in an agreement to
back a European High Definition Television standard for the European
community.

The European standard should ultimately become a world
standard, the PTT-ministers said. This formal decision will be
presented to the CCIR meet next June in Dusseldorf, West Germany
where HDTV specifications will be finalized.

European HDTV, designed under the Eureka-program, sponsored
by the European Commission, has one advantage over the existing
Japanese HDTV. Its special transmission system can be captured by
today's sets, something the Japanese High Definition Television is
unable to do with older model that work through European PAL and
SECAM standards.

Belgian PTT Minister Marcel Colla said that a joint stand on
the issue does not go far enough. ''Member states should take
a dynamic and convincing stand vis-a-vis the European initiative
to give a signal to the rest of the world,'' he said.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00004)

US MEMORIES PREZ KEEPS THE FAITH}
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 07 (NB) --  Despite the fact
that only seven computer chip and personal computer companies
have committed to giving US Memories support and financial
backing, President Sanford Kane is certain the proposed 41
billion consortium is going to be a reality.

According to a UPI report, Kane is confident the consortium will
line up the key backers it needs to meet the groundbreaking
scheduled for December. A final site has not been chosen but the
choices have been narrowed to Austin, TX, Colorado Springs, CO,
Middletown, NY and Phoenix, AZ. US Memories is expected to
announce the winning site in early December.

US Memories will manufacture four-megabit DRAM chips in the US
to raise US market share.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00005)

CANADIAN COURT REFUSES TO EXTRADITE MCVEY}
VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA, 1989 NOV 08 (NB) -- The Canadian appellate
court has killed US efforts to extradite alleged computer
criminal Charles McVey.

McVey, a millionaire from Orange County, CA, has been fighting
extradition from his Canadian jail cell for two years. According
to a report in the Orange County Register, the Canadian court
rejected the US bid for extradition of McVey on charges he
masterminded a plot to sell supercomputers to the Soviets in the
early 1980s.

McVey fled to Europe in 1983 and was apprehended while fishing in
Canada four years later. Since that time, McVey, age 65, has
been fighting extradition on several cases, one filed in Los
Angeles in 1983 in connection with the supercomputers and another
filed in San Jose, CA alleging that McVey and three others
plotted to sell "Star Wars" technology to the Soviets. Canadian
judges dismissed the US appeal in the Los Angeles indictment in
November 1988. The latest dismissal was of the San Jose charges.

In each case, grounds for dismissal was the Canadian contention
that the charges were not covered in the US/Canadian extradition
treaty.

McVey is now a free man even though prosecutors have appealed the
ruling in the Los Angeles case to the Canadian Supreme Court and
the suit is still pending. US officials have announced they plan
to track McVey because he is considered a major criminal.
According to the US Customs Service, if McVey sets foot on US
soil, he will be arrested on sight.

McVey has said nothing about his travel plans now that he has
been released. His US passport expired in 1984 and the phony
Guatemalan passport he was using was confiscated by Canadian
authorities in 1987.

There has also been no further word about the book he is writing
about his adventures in Europe, Russia and China that he said
earlier would not include anything about his stay in the Canadian
prison.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(LAX)(00006)

HITACHI TO SUPPLY U.S. POST OFFICES WITH CD-ROMS}
COMPTON, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 02 (NB) -- Hitachi Sales
Corporation of America's Industrial Products Division has been
awarded a contract with Sysorex Information Systems, a systems
integration government contractor, to provide approximately 2000
CD-ROMS to the US Postal Service over the next three years.

Under the deal, which is effective immediately, individual post
offices will be able to choose between Hitachi's CDR-3600 and
CDR-1503 on a "catalog buy" basis from MAPS (Microcomputer
Acquisition for the Postal Service.) The contract to supply MAPS
is for two years with three one-year options.

Hitachi's CDR-3600 CD-ROM is compatible with the IBM PC/AT/XT and
with IBM's PS/2 series. It is daisy-chain compatible to drive
eight drives, has 0.35-second random access time, 552 megabytes
storage capacity and an MTBF of 25,000 hours. Suggested retail
price is $895. Hitachi also produces the CDR-1503 standalone
model CD-ROM incorporating daisy chain capability, 552 megabytes
capacity, high speed random access and an MTBF of 10,000 hours
that lists for $995.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Eric Kamayatsu,
Hitachi, 213-605-2537)


(NEWS)(GOVT)(SYD)(00007)

AUSTRALIAN CONTENT REGULATIONS IMPLEMENTED}
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- New Federal government
purchasing regulations have come into effect since November 1 and
companies are being asked to prove they are maintaining their local
content levels.

The Department of Administrative Services is currently reviewing
the Australian content of Techway PCs which has reportedly fallen
below originally specified levels.

(Gavin Atkins & Computing Australia/19891108)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00001)

1000-PLUS VISITORS FLOWN INTO HOUSTON FOR COMPAQ LAUNCH}
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 6 (NB) -- Compaq  unveiled its latest
machines before a 100-plus audience of invited guests, including over
150 foreign journalists flown in especially for the event. The Houston
Astrohall rocked to the pyrotechnics and laser show which still seemed
so much more subdued than typical Compaq productions. There wasn't
even a live band. But as Compaq CEO Rod Canion explained, "These
announcements speak for themselves. We don't need to add any theatrics."

First the new server PC, the Systempro, was unveiled, then various
third party vendors swore their allegiance to Compaq, the EISA bus,
the new machines and the 486 chip -- not necessarily in that order.
Finally, the superfast Deskpro 486/25 was revealed.

Much of the introductory section on the Systempro was spent comparing
its speed to established minicomputers. Although Canion said that
Compaq wasn't chasing the mini market, it was obvious it wouldn't
take long before it would be.

General comment by the visiting vendors was that the two new
machines were not only eminently saleable, but would expand their
sales activities into ever higher environments, especially with
the platform capabilities of the Systempro.

After more than two hours of launch proceedings, guests were
ushered into a large hall where Compaq and complementary vendors
displayed speed comparisons, new applications, old applications
speeded up, and glimpses of applications to come.

Even as I type, the exhibits are to be packed for shipment to
Comdex where more than 100,000 people will see just what Compaq
says it can deliver late this year.

(Paul Zucker/19891106)


(EXCLUSIVE)(IBM)(WAS)(00002)

NEW COMPAQ COMPUTERS FACE SHIPPING DELAYS}
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- Compaq Computer
Corporation's newly announced Systempro will not be available
immediately in the 486 configuration due to a shortage of
33 megahertz (MHz) 486 chips, Newsbytes has learned.

Systempros with 33 MHz 386 processor boards are immediately
available. Units with 33 MHz 486 processor boards will be shipped
as the processor becomes available, Newsbytes was told.

(Don S. Johnson/19891109)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00003)

COMPAQ LEAPS UPWARDS WITH NEW WORKSTATION AND POWER PLATFORM}
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 6 (NB) -- As widely expected, Compaq
today released its 80486 and EISA machines. The minor machine is the
Compaq Deskpro 486/25 -- an EISA desktop with 25MHz 80486 processor
and a claimed performance, three times that of a 25MHz 386 machine.
(The 25MHz 80486 is capable of 15 million instructions per second.)
The base 120 MByte disk model is priced at $13,999. The major machine is the
Compaq Systempro -- a tower which takes one or two 80386 or 80486
processors via Flex Multiprocessor architecture, on an EISA bus.
The Systempro price ranges from $15,999 to $25,999 depending on
hard disk size. The Systempro and Deskpro 486/25 will ship in
late December or January.

(Paul Zucker/19891106)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00004)

COMPAQ INTRODUCES PC WITH MINI BEATING PERFORMANCE}
HOUSTON, TEXAS, NOV 6 1989 (NB) -- Compaq today revealed the PC
it expects will lead it into the nineties, far ahead of IBM. The
Compaq Systempro is a new style of machine for Compaq, both in
performance and construction.

Rather than being a 486 machine, it accepts either 386 or 486
processors, and even a combination of the two as the machine
operates in single or dual processor modes. The bus architecture is
EISA as expected, with a full seven spare slots, each capable of
taking 8, 16 or 32-bit boards. There are also four 32-bit slots for
system memory and processors. A new cache system and numerous fixed
disk configurations (such as drive arrays and data guarding) add to
the speed and reliability of the system.

The Systempro is a floor-standing tower case, with internal space
for eight fixed disks (a maximum of 1.68 gigabytes internally) and
three removable devices (including a new 0.5 megabyte tape drive). Random
access memory starts at 4 megabytes and goes all the way to a
whopping 256MByte.

The dual processor option is mad possible through Compaq's Flex/MP
multiprocessor architecture. The second processor sits on the 32-bit
bus via an expansion card, almost doubling the system's performance.
Two 486m processors on board will give the Systempro a 40-MIPS
capability. Initially the dual processors will be supported by
network environments such as Netware, SCO Unix and Lan Manager.
A later version of OS/2 may be optimized to use the two processors
for task sharing.

Although not stressed at the launch, the Systempro uses the new
EISA bus architecture, and a number of vendors had 32-bit add-on
boards to display. Meanwhile, the bus accepts standard XT and AT cards.

What was stressed was the raw speed of the new machine. In a sixty-
user environment it was six times faster than a DEC VAX 6310
and three times faster than a Hewlett-Packard 9000 series 835. Against
the IBM AS400 model B30 mini, the Systempro is nine times faster
on some tasks, and up to 38 times faster on others.

While obviously suited to file server applications, Compaq stresses
that the Systempro is still an ideal high-end workstation, offering
three times the performance of a 25MHz 386. The company claims that
the machine is true competition for dedicated graphics workstations.

A software product launched today is Microsoft Lan Manager 386/486
which will be sold by Compaq as well as Microsoft. The 1-10 user pack
sells for $2499 and the unlimited user version for $6999.

The basic 386 Systempro has 4 megabytes of RAM, 5.25" diskette,
240MByte fixed disk and the intelligent Drive Array Controller.
It sells for $15,999. The 420 MByte version is $25,999. Availability
is scheduled for late December world wide. Problems with the 80486
chip may delay availability for this processor.

(Paul Zucker/19891106)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00005)

NEW STANDARD IN DESKTOP POWER WITH COMPAQ DESKPRO 486}
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 6 1989 (NB) -- A new speed record
for desktop PCs was set today when Compaq launched its latest,
the Deskpro 486/25. Using an 80486 processor (rated at 15 MIPS)
the machine is around three times as fast as an equivalent 386-
based machine.

It combines the EISA bus with a high-speed cache system for the
"fastest possible" processor to memory interaction. Standard memory
is 4MBytes, interleaved and using fast 80ns page memory to reduce
wait states. Eight EISA memory slots allow for up to 100MBytes of RAM.

Fixed disk storage can be as high as 1.3 GBytes internally, with
120, 320, and 650MBytes standard options. (Prices from $13,999 to
$20,499.) The standard hard disk controller, giving a claimed
speed increase of up to 50 percent improving scrolling, repainting
and windowing.

The machine is due to ship in late December.

(Paul Zucker/19891106)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00006)

NEW OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS ANNOUNCED WITH COMPAQ 486 MACHINES}
HOUSTON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 6 (NB) -- Along with Compaq's new
80486 releases, a number of third party vendors announced
complementary products. These included Novell, Microsoft,
Banyan, Codenoll, Computone, and Emerald systems.

Microsoft and Compaq both announced the availability of Lan
Manager 386/486. Banyan announced Vines/486 support for the
new machines. Codenoll has a 10Mbps and 100Mps fiber-optic
Ethernet boards. Computone is shipping an EISA comms subsystem
consisting of a board and submodules for async, sync, Ethernet,
and scanner connections. Emerald systems has Ramp software for
intelligent backup and restore control on all Compaq systems.
National Systems has the first EISA high-speed data acquisition
system board. Novell announced a 32-bit EISA Ethernet network
adaptor card. Proteon has a Token Ring EISA card. SCO has
announced that its Unix will fully support the Compaq 486
environment.

(Paul Zucker/19891106)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00007)

COMPAQ CANADA LAUNCHES SYSTEMPRO, DESKPRO 486/25}
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 NOV 6 (NB) -- Simultaneous with
their introduction in the United States, Compaq's new SystemPro
and Deskpro 486/25 hit the Canadian market today.

Prices for the desktop 486/25 range from C$21,699 with a 120-
megabyte hard disk to C$31,799 with a 650 megabyte disk. All
models have four megabytes of 32-bit random access memory, a
5.25-inch diskette drive and six or seven available Extended
Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) slots.

Prices for the SystemPro start at C$24,699 for Model 386-240,
with a single 386 processor and a 240-megabyte hard disk drive.
Models with a 386 processor and 420- and 840-megabyte hard drives
cost C$30,799 and C$39,999 respectively. Shipments of these
models are to begin in December. Models using the 486 processor
are expected early in the new year.

In an interview following the announcement, Donald Woodley,
president of Compaq Canada, said the major market for the
SystemPro will be as a network server, while Compaq expects to
sell many Deskpro 486/25 machines as single-user systems. He also
predicted EISA will emerge as a clear standard very soon. "I
certainly don't think IBM is going to be the dominant
microcomputer supplier," he said.

(Grant Buckler/19891109/Press Contact: Donald Woodley, Compaq
Canada, 416-733-7876)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00008)

MEDIAGENIC OFFERS NEW PC GAME AUTHORING SYSTEM}
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- Mediagenic, in
its first major product announcement since scaling back to become
an entertainment-only software company, is offering Gametalk,
an object-oriented game authoring system for the PC.

Based on the software behind "Manhole," which was first developed
for the Macintosh, and is now also a game for IBMs and
compatibles, Gametalk provides the technology to develop interactive,
multimedia products for PCs. The software includes facilities for
development of audio, speech, and graphics playable on current and
future PC hardware.

In answer to a question about why Mediagenic has chosen to pursue
the IBM world with this product, rather than the Macintosh, Michelle
Bowman, Mediagenic spokeswoman said, "MS-DOS is the number one
gaming machine right now." She said there are no plans to make Gametalk
available on the Macintosh or other platforms.

(Wendy Woods/19891109)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00009)

IBM'S ENTRY INTO CD-ROM IMMINENT}
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- IBM is said to be
readying for release a CD-ROM system peripheral for connection
to its range of PCs including the PS/2 series.

The system, which is to be based on a Japanese-made CD-ROM unit,
probably from Mitsubishi, is to allow IBM to further its
entry into the educational market, one of the main markets for this
kind of read-only database.

CD-ROMs, which have been hailed as "wonder disks" by analysts over
the last few years, have not attained the sales revenue expected of
them. Currently, and according to International Data Corporation,
CD-ROM sales will reach the $700 million mark by the end of 1989.

Few personal computers come with CD-ROM drives. Exceptions are
the Fujitsu FM-Towns systems and an expected $2,000 CD-ROM-equipped
PC from Philips. The unit is said to have a 40MB hard disk and 286
microprocessor.

The IBM drive, which is expected to retail for less than $1000, will
be available in a Token Ring network configuration for use in
schools.

(Peter Vekinis/19891110)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00010)

IBM BUYS CADAM FROM LOCKHEED}
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- IBM has agreed to
purchase the CADAM division of Lockheed for about $80 million.

The CADAM subsidiary, whose product has been featured
prominently on IBM's computers RT/PC and the AS/400 systems,
is seen as an important purchase designed to allow IBM enhance its
capability in the computer-aided design and manufacturing sector.

CADAM, which currently runs only on IBM machines and will shortly
be offered on Apollo workstations (now a subsidiary of Hewlett-
Packard), may also become available on Digital Equipment's VAX
series and Sun's workstations.

CADAM had a loss of more than $1 million on sales of about $80
million last year. Market analysts expressed hope that with IBM's
purchase, CADAM will post a profit this year.

(Peter Vekinis/19891110)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SFO)(00011)

IBM TO ANNOUNCE NEW HIGH CAPACITY DRIVE}
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 11 (NB) -- IBM will announce a
new high capacity disk drive designed to offer more than three
times the storage capacity of previous products (24 gigabytes). The 3390,
is scheduled to be released next week during an IBM press
conference.

IBM is generally seen to be putting all its disk drive hopes
on this product. IBM's disk drive division represents more than
10% of IBM's yearly business and currently amounts to more than
$6 billion.

Although the San Francisco/Santa Cruz earthquake did not appear to
cause any damage to IBM's disk drive operation located in nearby
San Jose, analysts are waiting to see the kind of delivery
schedule IBM will announce.

The announcement comes after a two-month deal which analysts blame
on IBM's bug fixes for the product.

(Peter Vekinis/19891111)


(NEWS)(IBM)(LAX)(00012)

DELL LAPTOP, SMALL FOOTPRINT 386SX UNVEILED}
AUSTIN, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 06 (NB) -- Dell Computer has
introduced a small footprint 80386SX-desktop computer and a
laptop based on the same chip.

The Dell System 316SX is a complete system with a starting price
of $1,899. The system runs at 16 MHz. It has a built-in 16-bit
VGA controller for high-resolution graphics. The computer
accepts up to 8 megabyte RAM directly on the motherboard while the
system can use up to 16 megabytes. The system comes in a case that
has room for an internal hard drive and two accessible half-
height floppy disk drives.

Dell's new laptop, the Dell System 316LT, includes the features of
a high-end VGA desktop system. Dell spokesman Brian Fawkes told
Newsbytes that the laptop's screen has a unique feature. "With
other clamshell screens, there are only two positions. Our
laptop has a special patent-pending hinge mechanism that allows
the user to position the screen where he wants it to be."

Fawkes also pointed out the other unique feature of Dell's
laptop, the next-day on-site service provided by Xerox
Corporation for problems that cannot be handled over the toll-
free telephone service line. "This service has applied to all
Dell desktop computers since 1987," explained Fawkes. "Dell's
laptop is the only one that comes with next-day service available
wherever the user and laptop happen to be." Xerox services
centers cover 92 percent of the United States including Alaska
and Hawaii.

Dell's laptop comes in four configurations. The 1 megabyte RAM with
20 megabyte hard drive lists for $3499 (with a 40 megabyte hard drive,
the price is $3799) and the model with 2 megabytes RAM with 20
megabyte hard drive for $3699 (with a 40 megabyte hard drive,
the price is $3999.)

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Brian Fawkes, Dell
Computers, 512-338-4400)


(NEWS)(IBM)(ATL)(00013)

DIGITAL VIDEO ARCHITECTURE ANNOUNCED BY VIDEOLOGIC}
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- One of
the new buzzwords which will be vying for the computer
industry's attention during the Fall Comdex show in Las Vegas
starting November 13 is Digital Video Architecture from
Videologic. The company's DVA scheme allows manipulation of live
broadcast video feeds, or pictures on tape or CD videodisks.

The technology is already used in Europe, VideoLogic says, and
developed at a laboratory in Kings Langley, England. In Europe,
the company's Digital Adaptors have been integrated into the
product lines of IBM and other manufacturers through the M.I.C.
System software standard The product which does all this, the
DVA-4000/MCA, first shipped in July for IBM's Micro Channel, and
is now available on all IBM compatibles.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Videologic, Kirke
Curtis, 617-494-0530)


(NEWS)(IBM)(ATL)(00014)

NCR 486 MACHINE TAKES BUSINESSLAND SHELVES FROM COMPAQ }
DAYTON, OHIO, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 7 (NB) -- NCR announced an
80486-based PC with the IBM Micro Channel plugs, and won the
coveted Businessland shelf space put up for bid after that chain
dropped, or was dropped by, Compaq earlier this year.

Both announcements were important. The NCR PC486/MC uses the IBM
plugs instead of the EISA plugs pushed by Compaq and others.

The most surprising part of the announcement was NCR's claim it
would deliver working machines in December. Intel is reportedly
still facing up to software bugs, and isn't expected to ship
large quantities of the chip itself until January. There is a
difference, of course, between shipping and shipping in quantity,
and if bunches of both NCR and others' machines are rolling in
March the difference won't matter to anyone.

The Businessland announcement may have been even more important
than the 486 machine, which will join a raft of 386-based
machines introduced at Comdex starting November 13. The highly
publicized Compaq-Businessland divorce wouldn't become final
until Businessland RremarriedS and NCR's snatching of the
account from AT&T or Intel is an upset.

NCR has previously relied on its own sales force to sell its
product lines. NCR is over a century old, older than IBM, and is
the last of the old mainframe BUNCH -- Burroughs, Univac, NCR,
Control Data, and Honeywell -- still competing under its own name
from the bottom of IBM's product line to its top.

For Businessland, of course, all this makes great history and
advertising fodder.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Kim Warnock, NCR, 513-
445-4732)


(NEWS)(IBM)(WAS)(00015)

RUN IBM APPLICATIONS ON DEC WORKSTATIONS}
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 07 (NB) -- Among
a plethora of new products and price cuts announced
by Digital Equipment Corp., was a new software package which
allows DEC workstation users to run IBM-compatible applications.

SoftPC software allows users of Digital's DECstation 2100 and 3100
to run both IBM-compatible applications and DEC workstation applications
in a single desktop machine.

Other software introductions from DEC include DECnet for OS/2
operating systems, providing support for IBM and some other
compatible computers to operate as full peers in DECnet
networks and Enhanced DECwindows environment for both personal
computer and workstation users.

DEC also introduced the DECstation 212, a low-cost personal computer
operating at 12 megahertz and with a full range of system options.
The company cut prices by 19-39% on selected options for its
DECstation 316 and 320 personal computers.

(Don S. Johnson/19891110)


(EXCLUSIVE)(IBM)(TYO)(00016)

TANDY TO GET MATSUSHITA PCS FOR CHRISTMAS}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 3 (NB) -- Abiding by a trade barrier established
by the U.S. to limit import of high performance computers from Japan,
Matsushita Electric Industrial is planning to export 20,000 units of 8088-
based laptop personal computers to Tandy on an original manufacturing
equipment basis which will be sold under the brand name Tandy and
Panasonic in the U.S. for Christmas.

The machine to be exported by Matsushita is the most powerful allowed
under sanctions created following the dumping below market cost
of semiconductor chips in the U.S. by Japanese makers. Japanese
firms are still unable to export high performance computers, such
as those equipped with Intel 80286 microprocessors.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TYO)(00017)

TOSHIBA HOPES FOR BIG SPLASH OVERSEAS WITH DYNABOOK}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Toshiba's lightweight
computer the DynaBook is a phenomenal success story in Japan,
something Toshiba wants to repeat in the U.S. and Europe.

The DynaBook has been exported and is being sold as the T-3100
and T-1000 SE in the U.S. and European market. The name change
is due to the fact that Dynabook Computer, a separate company,
holds the copyright of the name in the West.

Toshiba's Irvine, California plant has started production of
T-1000 SE and T-3100 SX computers, and the company's Regensburg
plant in West Germany should be ready to produce them by April, 1990.

Toshiba expects 10,000 units of the book-sized T1000 SE and 7,000 of
the upper-end laptop machines, T-3100 SX, to be created each month
once the European plant goes online.

Since the release of the J-3100 or T-3100 series in October 1986 both
in Japan and elsewhere, some one million units have been sold. The
success parallels that of NEC which took the same amount of time
to sell a million PC-9800s.

Toshiba is expecting to sell 173,000 DynaBooks in Japan and 404,000
overseas in this fiscal year.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TYO)(00018)

BOOK-SIZED PC WITH TOUCH PANEL FROM NTT DATA}
TOKYO, JAPAN 1989 NOV 4 (NB) -- NTT Data, a subsidiary of
Japanese telecom giant NTT, has joined Grid Systems
in being among the first to offer a 16-bit notebook-sized computer
with an unconventional data entry format. NTT's Real Portable
computer has no keyboard -- data entry is performed on a touch
panel liquid crystal display screen.

Identical to a hand-held organizer, the Real Portable measures 182
by 257 by 35 millimeters. The machine features an
Intel 80C186 central processing unit and 640 kilobytes of main
memory, as well as two slots for 512 kilobytes of memory cards.
The unit weighs only 1.3 kilograms -- slightly more than two pounds,
compared to the four pound weight of the Grid. It has an RS232C
interface for communication and the operating system is MS-DOS.
The power source of the machine is a rechargeable nickel-
cadmium cell which provides up to three hours of operation
when fully charged.

NTT Data will release the machine in February next year and target it at
businesses which require mobility, such as those in automobile sales.
At that time Ricoh, which is already producing a book-sized PC for
IBM Japan, will assume production. There is no plan to market the
machine directly to the public.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110/Press Contact: NTT Data Communications
Systems Corp., 03-509-4647, Miss Ishida)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TYO)(00019)

RICOH TO RELEASE BOOK-SIZED PC}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 7 (NB) -- Ricoh, the supplier of the book-sized
personal computer for IBM Japan, will release the same machine
under its own brand name as early as next year. There is no word on
just what IBM Japan thinks of this arrangement, nor has Newsbytes
received definite word about the machine's price and name. IBM Japan
is selling the identical unit under the name IBM 5499 OnlineNote.

In the meantime, Ricoh has released a high-end model of its Mr. My Tool
series personal computers. The My Tool GX series is equipped with
32-bit Intel 80386 central processing units and operate OS/2 Vr. 1.1.

Mr. My Tool GX 30, with the configuration of 30-megabyte hard disk
drive (HDD) and laser printer, costs 2,094,000 yen or $14,450;
GX60, which has 60 megabytes of HDD, is priced 2,294,000 yen or
$15,820. The firm expects 500 units of sales in each month. The
products are designed for the Japanese market only.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TYO)(00020)

CITIZEN SUPPLIES BOOK-SIZED LTE COMPUTERS FOR COMPAQ}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 4 (NB) -- U.S.-based Compaq Computer is now
unloading palettes of book-sized computers from Japan's Citizen Watch
at its Texas headquarters. Citizen makes the recently announced
Compaq LET and LET/286 on an original equipment manufacturing basis
for Compaq. Citizen expects to make 10 million yen or $690,000
from sales in the initial year.

Citizen, however, does not supply the complete machine to Compaq.
Citizen exports necessary parts, such as liquid crystal displays and
floppy disk drives, and Compaq assembles the parts in its U.S. and
European manufacturing lines.

Citizen and Compaq began their partnership in 1987 with the
supply of a 3/4-inch thick FDD unit for the Compaq SLT/286.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110)


(NEWS)(IBM)(SYD)(00021)

AUSSIE TEXT RETRIEVAL SOFTWARE LAUNCHED OVERSEAS}
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Odyssey Development is
turning its attention to overseas markets now that its text
retrieval software system ISYS has become the most popular
package of its type in Australia after only 12 months in the
marketplace.

Odyssey recently employed the Palo Alto-based Regis McKenna
Inc., or RMI, to look after the company's introduction in the US.
Managing Director of Odyssey Mark Reiss said that RMI's
brief was to find a US partner for Odyssey to publish ISYS on an
international basis.

"We have looked carefully at our international options and
decided that, although we could raise enough capital to launch
in the US, we do not have the experience required to take such
a risk by ourselves. We have therefore chosen to take the
lower risk option of having one of the major software publishers
market our product for us. Discussions are underway with
three major US companies and we hope to make an announcement
soon," he said.

ISYS allows PC users to search for words and phrases on either
a stand-alone PC or LAN which can be retrieved from any one of
25 different word processor file formats.

(Gavin Atkins/19891108)


(NEWS)(IBM)(TOR)(00022)

386 SYSTEM HAS POWER PROTECTION, 3-YEAR WARRANTY}
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1989 NOV 6 (NB) -- OTB
Systems plans to introduce a 386 system at Comdex/Fall which has
power protection built in, comes with a proprietary cooling
system and carries a three-year warranty.

The Canadian company said its OTB 386 Tower system will carry an
introductory price of C$5,000 with an 85-megabyte hard disk, high-
density diskette drive, six drive bays, eight expansion slots, one
megabyte of random-access memory, VGA adapter and 14-inch color
monitor.

The OTB 386 Tower's power supply incorporates transient voltage
surge suppression technology from EFI of Salt Lake City, Utah.
OTB said power spikes and surges cause as much as 40 percent of
microcomputer problems. The company also said operating
temperatures significantly affect the lifetimes of computer
components.

OTB claimed its ThermoKinetic cooling design keeps operating
temperatures 10 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. According to
Geoff Davidson, chief executive officer, this lets OTB push a 20-
megahertz 386 processor to 25 megahertz without fear of problems.
"We've talked at extensive length with design engineers at
Intel," he said. "They're quite comfortable with the speed we're
running it at."

The system also comes with a three-year warranty covering parts
and labor, all perils insurance backed by Prudential Insurance
Co. and a field-upgrade program, Davidson said. The Tower is
designed to accept future 486 and 586 processors by replacing the
system board only, according to Davidson.

(Grant Buckler/19891109/Press Contact: Geoff Davidson, OTB
Systems, 604-385-8400)


(EXCLUSIVE)(TELECOM)(SFO)(00001)

LUCASFILM'S HABITAT GOES ONLINE ON JAPAN'S NIFTY SERVE}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 12 (NB) -- Fujitsu will launch on Nifty-Serve an
interactive online game called the Habitat which was developed jointly
by Fujitsu and LucasFilm Ltd., the giant movie-making operation
famous for Star Wars.

A hybrid of Habitat is currently online on Q-Link, the Commodore-
only system of Quantum Computer Services in the U.S. On Q-Link it
is called Club Caribe, and allows the players to be represented as
characters they can customize in an on-screen scenario.

Nifty-Serve is a joint venture of Fujitsu and Nissho Iwai Corp and it
provides a gateway service for CompuServe of the U.S. The computer
communication network service has just added 28 access points to
attract local users in Japan.

The new service with 1200 baud is available in nine cities such as
Morioka, Niigata and Yamaguchi. 2400 baud service is available
in 19 cities, such as Yokohama, Nagoya, Hiroshima and Osaka.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110)


(EXCLUSIVE)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00002)

TV STATION GETTING INTO THE FAXING BUSINESS}
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- A TV
station in Milwaukee will reportedly become the first to offer
fax services running alongside its programs and ads. The Hearst-
owned station is buying the FaxBank, an 8-line fax board with
memory, which combines the advantages of a computerized
operator with fax deliveries on command.

The box includes computerized voices and instructions to choose a
fax from a library by use of a code number entered on a touch tone
phone pad. Call the FaxBank from your fax machine, enter the code
for the ad or news page you want, and it's delivered as soon as
you can hang up the handset.

Monte Lounsbury, a 27-year broadcast industry veteran who's
selling the FaxBank to TV stations, says this lets TV stations do such
things as offer coupons or product brochures as magazines and
newspapers do.

Initially, Lounsbury thinks, it gives TV access to the vast
business-to-business market now dominated by local newspapers and
closely targeted magazines.

The Sprint Services division of U.S. Sprint will also roll-out
fax services with the box in January. Right now it is testing a
reader-reply system for Communications Week magazine using the
system, and the test has reportedly gone well. Services delivered
with the FaxBank by U.S. Sprint will include forwarding messages
to mailing lists and handling orders for advertising information.

TV executives contacted by The Teleputing Hotline, a newsletter
covering telephone-computer connections, praised the FaxBank's
software, but said a network version of the product will be
needed to avoid busy signals. With toll-free 800 numbers,
however, they said the FaxBank can be used to send viewers ads or
coupons, while with caller-paid 900 numbers it could be used to
send news summaries, stock tables, or weather maps.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: FaxBank Systems, Monte
Lounsbury, 414-642-7159)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00003)

HYBRID FAX PREANNOUNCES FAX SOFTWARE}
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 10 (NB) -- Among the
preannouncements for the Comdex show is a software package which
lets you take any PC file and send it out as a fax directly,
without the need for even a PC fax board. The software program,
JetFax/PC, is used in conjunction with the JetFax, a 2-inch wide
unit which shares a laser printer port and handles fax traffic.

This wonder will be on display at the Sahara Hotel, Booth 9329,
Monday through Friday.

The JetFax can be used either with one PC or as part of a
network, and lets the laser printer transmit faxes directly from
a PC without tying up the PC during the transmission.

By eliminating the requirement for an internal fax board,
JetFax/PC overcomes installation and compatibility problems, its
creators say. The print interface lets you send faxes to the
JetFax as though it were an ordinary print file, either
immediately or at the sender's option.

The JetFax performs all the dialing and fax transmission
functions without affecting PC applications. Confirmation
reports are provided after fax transmission. The JetFax can
broadcast multiple faxes simultaneously, storing each in its
memory until it is scheduled to be sent. A mail-merge
program can customize broadcast faxes with the intended
recipients' names and addresses. JetFax/PC can
also be used to transmit 300 dots-per-inch, letter quality
documents between JetFax units in a fraction of the time of
standard faxes. This is because JetFax/PC transmits the actual
printer files instead of the entire graphics image.

Operating either in RAM-resident mode or from a DOS prompt,
JetFax/PC will transmit ASCII, TIFF and PCX files, even
supporting mixed file types on a single fax page. Thus,
letterhead and signatures can be merged into documents.

JetFax/PC, available January 1990, retails for $195 per stand-
alone package, or $395 per site license for unlimited PCs with
access to a single JetFax-equipped laser printer.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Hybrid Fax, Lori
Waggener Evans, 415-369-0600)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LAX)(00004)

PROGRAMMABLE FAX FROM SEAGULL}
OREM, UTAH, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 07 (NB) -- The Executive Fax
combining high resolution with programmability has been announced
by Seagull Technologies Corp., a subsidiary of Deseret Digital
Designs, Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT).

The Executive Fax is PC-compatible and can print or transmit
faxes in resolutions up to 400 dots per inch on plain paper from
laser printers. It is compatible with all Group 3 fax machines.
The Executive Fax can be programmed to accept faxes from all
machines or a select group, a way of eliminating junk fax. To
guarantee accurate transmission, the Executive Fax provides
selectable confirmation.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Phil Bunker, Seagull
Technologies, 801-580-6300)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00005)

WILLIAMS BUYS OUT RAILROAD INTEREST IN FIBER LINE BUSINESS}
TULSA, OKLAHOMA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 3 (NB) -- In the end, the
oil boys took the fiber pipe from the railroad boys. That was the
message when The Williams Companies bought out the Williams
Telecommunications Group stock held by LDX Group, Inc., an 87 percent
owned subsidiary by Kansas City Southern Industries.

The railroad and oil pipeline outfit merged their fiber optic lines
in 1987, and built it to an 11,000 mile network with microwave
links as well as an all-fiber phone network. The railroad cashed
out to the pipeliners for roughly $100 million.

Williams Telecommunications, or WilTel, is now 84 percent
owned by the old pipeline firm. The railroad had previously
announced an intention to sell its interests in a public offering.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Jim Gipson, Williams
Companies, 918-588-2111)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00006)

US WEST MAKES AMES CHIEF PHONE EXECUTIVE}
ENGLEWOOD, COLORADO, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 3 (NB) -- U S West has
named Gary Ames, 45, president and chief executive officer of U S
West Communications, the 14-state telephone company, effective
January 1.

Ames is still the corporate number three, however,
behind, U S West President Dick McCormick, and Chairman Jack
MacAllister. Ames originally came in at Seattle with Pacific
Northwest Bell, and moved to Denver as the number two at Mountain
Bell in 1983, shortly before the Bell break-up.

The move concludes the consolidation of the company's old
operating divisions; Mountain Bell, Northwestern Bell and Pacific
Northwest Bell. Ames built his career at Mountain Bell and in
formulating the parent company's aggressive stance toward
regulators as president of public policy. Ames is also Colorado
Chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee and serves on numerous
boards of directors in the Denver and Santa Fe areas.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: U S West Inc.,
Jerry Brown, 303-793-6355)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00007)

MESSAGING 89 LINKS PHONE, FAX, CELLULAR, AND E-MAIL}
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 3 (NB) -- The creative
combination of fax, phones, cellular links and electronic mail
were the themes of the Messaging 89 show at the New York Hilton.

"The message of our exposition," said Marc Ostrofsky, chairman of
the event's cosponsor, Information Publishing Corp., "is that
all these different forms of communications are now working
together. That means things like electronic mail being sent to
a fax machine and then read on a voice mail system." The Yankee
Group is cosponsor of the exhibition.

The keynoter was U.S. Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank, who
allayed fears the government agency would try to take over the
business. One concession to the future the Post Office has made,
he said, is to put fax machines in many Post Office lobbies.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Don Rosendale, 212-486-
2666)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00008)

L.A. CELLULAR, MOTOROLA, NOKIA INK MARKETING PACTS}
VAN NUYS, CAlIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 OCT 31 (NB) -- L.A. Cellular
will sell both Motorola and Nokia cellular phones through a Van
Nuys distributor and over 2,000 dealers in the Los Angeles Basin
and the area known as the "Great Southland."

The HTD dealers are as far apart as Ventura, 100 miles up the
Pacific Coast, deep inland to San Bernardino and south clear
down to Dana Point. HTD also distributes computers, office
products and business forms. L.A. Cellular had its own market
channels, such as car-stereo installers, auto dealers and mass
merchandisers.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: High Technology
Distributing, Perry Solomon, 818-994-8001)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00009)

MCI ANNOUNCES HOTEL PLAN}
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1989 NOV 3 (NB) -- MCI Communications
announced MCI Hospitality Plus, a specialized telephone service
system tailored for the specific needs of the hotel industry.

"Hotels spend approximately $2.8 billion a year on
telecommunications services," said Tim Price, MCI vice president
of sales. Hospitality Plus offers one-stop shopping with operator
services for guest rooms, MCI 800 Service, MCI Fax, pay phone
services, and management plans designed for hotels, which it
calls Hotel Prism. Hotels will be charged the standard Prism Plus
per minute rates and monthly fee and can qualify for a special
discount applying to evening, night and weekend traffic if it
equals or exceed 60 percent of the total.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: MCI Corporate News
Bureau, 1-800-289-0073)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00010)

MAXWELL INTROS PHARMACY DATABASE}
MCLEAN, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 3 (NB) -- Maxwell
Online is adding Pharmaprojects, from PJB Publications Ltd., to
its list of BRS Colleague databases. Pharmaprojects covers drugs
under development in over 800 companies, from early animal
studies through approval by regulators.

Maxwell Online, which includes the old Orbit, Pergamon, as well as
BRS systems, along with the Official Airline Guide, is in an uphill
fight with Mead Data Central and Dialog in the online database market.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Kim Briggs, Maxwell
Online, 703-442-0900)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00011)

DOW JONES PICKS UP THE REST OF TELERATE, TALKS OF VISION}
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 2 (NB) -- Dow-Jones
agreed to buy the one-third of Telerate it doesn't own for $651
million, or $21 per share. Telerate is the leading provider of
online systems for brokers and traders desks, and its version of
where the market is gets acted upon more than any other scheme.

Telerate represents just one piece of the company's vision of a
one-stop financial money network. Dow Jones-News Retrieval, which
offered an English-language query language called Dowquest, is
now talking to magazine reporters about Dow Vision, which is a
complete, customized corporate databases combining archival and
real-time data. The integrated combination of Telerate with the
Dow Vision will compete with Reuters for the financial
desktops of the 1990s.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(ATL)(00012)

SPRINT ANNOUNCES KENYA NET, OCLC DEAL}
RESTON, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Sprint
International will build a packet net for the East African nation
of Kenya, to be called Kenpac. The contract is small beer by
U.S. standards, $5.6 million, but could become very vital in
linking Kenyan industry and the outside world. Kenya hopes to
make its system a gateway between all of East Africa and the
rest of the world.

Back at home, Sprint won a contract with the Online Computer
Library Center, of OCLC, in Dublin, Ohio, The OCLC network is
used by libraries across the U.S. and in 38 foreign countries,
offering inter-library loans, custom-printed catalog cards and
machine-readable records.

The contract parade, worth a total of $76.6 million, is one way
of demonstrating the complete reorganization announced a few weeks
ago is already working. Under that plan, announced in October,
the telephone business of US Sprint and data network of Telenet
are now offered by separate business and international sales
forces, each with both product lines. As a separate business,
in other words, Telenet no longer exists. The Telenet brand name
will probably survive, but the decision on where to put it has
yet to be made. Under the Sprint name, Telenet services were
also bought in the last week by Sandoz and Hoffman-La Roche of
Switzerland.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Robin Carlson, Sprint
International, 703-689-5664)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00013)

UK: CT-2 PUBLIC CORDLESS TELEPHONE WAR HEATS UP}
LONDON, ENGLAND, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- Phonepoint and Zonephone,
two of the UK's four second-generation cordless phone (CT-2)
networks, may already be available, but the third contender -
BYPS Communications - reckons it's winning the war, despite the
fact it hasn't even begun installing its network.

The reason for BYPS's confidence? BYPS has signed up with
Orbitel to take its 'contact' range of CT phones from next spring
onwards. The contact series is the first to comply with the
common air interface (CAI) standard that will allow CT-2 phones
to be used on other network operator's systems throughout Europe.

Under the terms of the CT-2 licence awarded to the four network
operators, each network provider must offer CAI service by the
end of 1990. Although BYPS isn't saying as much, the announcement
that it is offering CAI service from day one is a swipe at
Phonepoint and Zonephone, both of whose products are currently
not CAI-compatible.

Although users of both CT-2 networks will be able to use their
handsets after the end of 1990, their handsets will be restricted
to their own networks, rather than being able to roam anywhere
within 200 metres range of Phonepoint public base station.

(Steve Gold/19891114/Press & Public Contact: David Nicholas,
Orbitel Mobile Communications - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(LON)(00014)

EUROCOM '89: CALL FOR REGISTRATIONS}
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- RAI Organisatie
Bureau Amsterdam has announced that it is accepting registrations
for Eurocom '89, which will be held in Amsterdam on the 13th and
14th of December, 1989.

The conference is billed as an international telecommunications
meeting of minds, where issues such as the 1992 free European
market and international telecommunication regulations will be
discussed. Attendance at the event doesn't come cheaply, however,
although there is also also the Eurocomm '89 exhibition, which is
free of charge, taking place in parallel with the conference.

The Eurocomm '89 exhibition is the third in a series of annual
shows in Amsterdam, and is held from the 12th to the 15th of
December at the international exhibition and congress centre in
Amsterdam.

(Steve Gold/19891114/Press & Public Contact: RAI Gebouw,
Europaplein, 1078 GZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Tel: +31-20-
549-12-12 extension 1649)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TYO)(00015)

NTT DATA TO SET UP OVERSEAS OFFICE}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- NTT Data Communications Systems
Corp, a whole subsidiary of NTT, has decided to set up a branch
office and a computer center in New York, U.S. to launch its first
international system integration unit.

To start, it will set up a host computer by which the firm
will manage and operate data communications between
New York and Tokyo for Japanese firms via international VAN
(value-added network).

NTT Data will, furthermore, set up branch offices in London,
and elsewhere in Europe to develop its international strategy.

Including its international business, NTT Data expects that it will
earn sales of 450 billion yen ($3.1 billion), and revenue of 38
billion yen ($260 million) and have less than 9,000 employees in
the fiscal 1992.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(EXCLUSIVE)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00016)

KIRIN COMPUTER PUTS SERVICE ON 900 NUMBER}
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Toronto-based Kirin
Computer Corp. will announce at Comdex/Fall in Las Vegas this
week a nationwide 900 number for personal computer support. The
Canadian company will offer this service only in the United
States for now, company President David Rosen said, because 900
service is not yet available in Canada.

Kirin already offers PC support to Canadian business customers on
a pay-in-advance basis. Customers buy a block of time from Kirin,
and each support call is deducted from the customer's block of
prepaid time. Kirin plans to offer this service in the U.S. as
well. The 900 service, however, will make it possible for small
businesses and individual users to call the service without
opening an account first. Rosen said he expects the service to
cost from US$1.25 to US$1.50 per minute. It is expected to be
available before the end of the year.

Kirin, incorporated in 1987, supports more than 600 hardware and
software products. Its clients range from three- and four-person
companies to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and
Communications, Rosen said. The company also provides telephone
support on a contract basis for some hardware and software
vendors.

(Grant Buckler/19891108/Press Contact: David Rosen, Kirin
Computer, 416-483-4357)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00017)

NEW ONLINE SERVICE SLATED TO LAUNCH IN CANADA -- SUZY}
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- Stratford
Software will show Suzy, its new gateway software for online
services, to shareholders at its annual meeting November 15.

The company plans a formal announcement shortly after that and hopes
to begin shipping December 1, said Terry MacDonald, manager of
investor relations.

Stratford, formerly Bedford Software, sold its accounting
software business to Computer Associates last summer to
concentrate on developing Suzy, described as an "online
information system" which had been in development for some 18
months before the sale.

(Grant Buckler/19891109/Press Contact: Terry McDonald, Stratford
Software, 604-439-1311)


(NEWS)(TELECOM)(TOR)(00018)

NORTHERN TELECOM FIRST WITH TOP QUALITY RATING}
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 NOV 7 (NB) -- Northern Telecom
is the first company to receive the International Standards
Organization's highest quality rating.

The company received certification of the ISO's ISO9001 quality
assessment standard along with certification of the Canadian
Standards Association's CAN3-Z299-1 quality standard. The
certifications cover Northern Telecom's digital switching
division in Brampton, Ontario, near Toronto.

(Grant Buckler/19891109/Press Contact: John Lawlor, Northern
Telecom Canada, 416-238-7147)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00001)

JAPAN: INTEL TO BOOST 33MHZ 386 SALES}
IBARAKI, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Intel Japan plans to boost sales
of 33 megahertz or the high-end version of its flagship
microprocessor i80386 by the end of the year.

Intel is selling the i486 as well and received orders for the
33MHz i386 as early as April of this year, but at that time the industry
was in transition from 20MHz to 25MHz chips, consequently there was
not much of a demand for the higher speed microprocessors.

Recently the 25MHz version of the i386 has been widespread in Japan
and requests are coming in for higher-speed versions among
personal computer makers, so Intel Japan has now decided to
sell 33MHz i386 in larger quantity.

Intel has already received orders for the 33MHz i386 from NEC, to be
used in its new PC called PC-H98 Model 70.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(BRU)(00002)

FRANCE TO INTRODUCE HDTV EARLY VERSION}
PARIS, FRANCE, 1989 NOV 11 (NB) -- The world's largest
television producer is to stir a major row in the electronics
industry when it announces an early version of a new High
Definition Television early next year.

Thomson of France produces 7 million television sets a year and
recently unveiled its prototype of an advanced television,
halfway between present technology and full HDTV. It will be
on sale initially in France, West Germany and Britain for
about 30,000 French francs ($4,400).

A US launch date has not been set yet because the
Federal Communications Commission has not yet
decided on a HDTV standard.

Strategically, analysts contend, the move is a matter of life
and death for Thomson. It goes beyond the mere struggle for market
share of the anticipated $18 billion worldwide market over 20 years.
Thomson executives present their HDTV model as the heart of
France's answer to Japan's challenge in the world's consumer
electronics market.

"Japan has targeted HDTV to be the Waterloo for the world's
remaining electronics producers. We want it to be an Austerlitz
instead. Napoleon lost Waterloo because he could not choose the
battlefield. At Austerlitz, he choose where to lay out his lines -
and the result was different,'' said Alain Gomez, Thomson's
combative chairman.

The importance of HDTV to Europe's electronics industry
rests on the fact that they will consume up to 10 times more
chips than conventional televisions, as well as generate
new markets in computer peripherals, studio and broadcasting
equipment.

''The likelihood is that if we cannot find a new market like
HDTV for our semiconductors, existing markets will not be enough
to sustain our electronics industry,'' said Jean Caillot, director
of Thomson's international division.

He says that one of the great strengths of Japan's semiconductor
industry is that fully half of its sales go into consumer
electronics products, compared to just over 20 percent for its
European competitors. Europe has another disadvantage in
that it relies more heavily on defense and computer industries
which are both hampered by slow growth in recent times.

The move is a bold one for Thomson which as little as five
years ago was seriously thinking of leaving the consumer
electronics business altogether. It was Gomez who took the gamble
of staying with consumer electronics, taking Thorn EMI's Ferguson
consumer electronics business in the UK and General ElectricUs RCA
television and audio equipment arm in the United States in 1987.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00003)

HITACHI DEVELOPS SMALLER 4M CHIP}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- Hitachi has developed a smaller foot-
print four-megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory)
chip with special features that allow it to fit into the current package
occupied by one-megabit DRAM chips.

The size of the four-megabit DRAM, 71.6 square millimeters, is 20 percent
smaller than the current version. The new small chip has two
access speeds -- 100 and 80 nanoseconds.

Since the upgrade is the same size as current one-megabit chip,
machines equipped with one-megabit DRAM chips are
upgradeable without any internal design changes. Hitachi believes
this will help facilitate a generational change from one-megabit
to four-megabit DRAM-equipped computers.

The firm is planning to boost four megabit-DRAM chip output to
400,000/month by the end of this year and 20 to 30 percent of the output
will be the newly developed smaller chip.

(Naoyuki Yazawa/19891110)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LAX)(00004)

SURVEY FINDS INFO TECHNOLOGY SPENDING ON RISE}
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 09 (NB) -- DECUS (Digital
Equipment Computer Users Society) has conducted a survey among
the 7,000+ attendees at its Fall '89 Symposium the results of
which show 66 percent estimate their information technology (IT)
budget is increasing faster than inflation.

Ten percent of the attendees said their budgets were increasing
at a slower rate than inflation and 18 percent indicated their
budgets were remaining level.

Other findings of the survey included the attendees estimates
that 42 percent of their IT budgets cover personnel, 31 percent
is spent for hardware and 23 percent for software.

The survey also found that 90 percent of the attendees work in
multiple computer vendor environments and 66 percent feel
industry standards are more important than vendor specific
standards in purchasing decisions. Most indicated satisfaction
with their primary hardware vendors, their systems and their
computer center operations while expressing dissatisfaction with
computer security features. At the same time, attendees placed
more importance on data integrity than communication concern.

On the software development side, 66 percent of the respondents
indicated they use third generation languages and 54 percent
indicated they primarily develop applications inhouse. The
paperless office is not becoming a reality for this group as 43
percent indicated their computer paper output is increasing.

Demographics of the respondents include 78 percent work in
organizations that use computer hardware and software. Forty-
four percent are managers and 50 percent are in staff positions
with 14 years experience and 4 years tenure in their current
position.

When asked for their computer technologies "wish list,"
respondents asked for voice activated computers and laptop mini-
computers.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Mary Oskirko, Digital
Equipment Corp., 714-324-4661)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(ATL)(00005)

IBM TO LICENSE DRAM TECH TO MICRON}
WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 8 (NB) -- As part
of the grand American design to get back into the memory chip
market against Japan, IBM licensed to Micron IBM's dynamic
random access memory, or DRAM, technology and let it work on some
codevelopment on other types of memory chips.

IBM will provide Micron with process technology and 4-megabit
chip design developed by IBM at Burlington, Vermont.

IBM was the first company in the world to announce commercial
availability of the 4-megabit DRAM, the industry's densest and most
advanced memory chip. Micron and IBM also reached an agreement
on a non-exclusive patent license including memory and
semiconductor patents of both companies.

The Micron license does not preclude IBM licensing such
technology to other parties, including US Memories, the
government-funded consortium to which it is already talking about
a technology license. IBM is also talking with Cypress
Semiconductor about a license.

(Dana Blankenhorn/19891110/Press Contact: Micron Technology,
Kipp Bedard, 208-389-4400)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(WAS)(00006)

KODAK SHOWS ELECTRONIC PRINTING ADVANCES}
SAN ANTONIO, TX, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 05 (NB)-- Eastman Kodak Company,
Rochester, New York, demonstrated some new capabilities for its 1392
line of electronic light emitting diode (LED) printers at the
XPLOR International show here.

Kodak's 1392 Model 24 now allows PostScript documents to
be compiled by a host computer on a network, allowing the
Model 24 spend more time printing at its rated 92 pages-per-minute.

The 1392 Model 34 also has available a memory expansion module
designed as an upgrade to the printer's input processor. This adds
310 megabytes (MB) of disk memory to the printer's current 115 MB to
allow more space for print data and document files. In addition to the
memory expansion, the Model 34 can perform single pass
duplexing from both the upper and lower paper supply drawers. This
means the printer can print both sides of a sheet in a single pass
while in continuous-run mode.

(Don S. Johnson/19891109)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(LON)(00007)

AMERICAN EXPRESS WORKS WITH MORE ATMS}
BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, 1989 NOV 14 (NB) -- One of the key problems
with globe-trotting is making sure that you have enough ready
cash. For the past two years, American Express has quietly
offered its European cardholders the express cash service.

The systems works with the cardholder nominating his/her personal
bank account, and signing a bank debit form. The American Express
card can then be used in a variety of automated teller machines
(ATMs) around the world to draw cash and/or travellers cheques.
The cost is converted into the cardholder's home currency,
together with a one percent surcharge, and debited from the
nominated bank at the end of the month.

A good deal you might think. On 1 November, American Express
unveiled its new improved Express Cash service available from
hundreds of thousands of ATMs around the world, instead of tens
of thousands as before.

Thanks to improved telecommunications links, most of the
transactions are now processed in days instead of weeks.
Added to that, Amex is charging two percent to the transaction!

(Steve Gold/19891114/Press & Public Contact: American Express
Europe Limited - Tel: [phone])


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00008)

FUJITSU AND NEC TO OFFER HIGH-END OFFICE COMPUTERS}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 6 (NB) -- Japan's largest office computer
maker Fujitsu and NEC will release several high-end office computers
between 1990 and 1991, according to Nihon Keizai newspaper.

The new computers will have five to six times greater
processing ability than the current high-end models, and
so will be equivalent to a mid-sized mainframe. The two
computer giants intend to challenge IBM Japan, which launched its
strategic, high-speed processing AS/400 computer last year.

NEC will release the high-end model of its S-3100 series next spring
and aims to ship it next summer. The new model with a single
microprocessor will process data 2.5 to three times faster than
the current high-end S-3100/90A , and with multiple MPUs, five to
six times faster. NEC will increase the relational database processing
and networking capabilities for the new model, and will allow it
to connect with workstations, mainframes, and other makers'
computers.

Fujitsu, on the other hand, will release a high-end model of
its K series in fall, 1991, and is scheduled to ship it in the
beginning of 1992. Compared to its current high-end K670/40,
the processing power will be five times larger with a single MPU,
and five to six times larger with multiple MPUs. The new model
will have almost equivalent performance as the middle class M760
of its mainframe M series.

Fujitsu and NEC have decided to launch their office computers
as a direct response to IBM Japan's AS/400 office computer. The
high-end model B70 of the AS/400 series is said to have power
equivalent to Fujitsu's M760 mainframe. Furthermore, most
observers think that IBM Japan also will launch its more powerful
office computer after Fujitsu and NEC will release their high-end
models.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00009)

FIERCE BATTLE IN HAND-HELD ORGANIZER MARKET}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 1 (NB) -- In Japan's electronic organizer
market, nearly 70 percent of which has been captured by Sharp,
Casio Computer is gaining ground. The reason is its IC (integrated
circuit) card-insertable DK-5000 which was released this August.

Though Casio is about two and a half years behind Sharp in
introducing an IC card-insertable hand-held organizer, the DK-5000
is said to be superior to Sharp's products in its display size and
communication speed with a personal computer. Casio is currently
making about 50,000 of them each month.

A Sharp spokesman says that the actual shares
captured by the two companies are 60% by Sharp and 40% by Casio.

The electronic organizer market in Japan, however, seems to
have reached its peak. Domestic shipment grew rapidly
from 650,000 units two years ago to two million units sold last
year, but this year's shipment will be less than 2.5 million units.

Facing tougher times, Sharp will release eight IC card programs,
including the Soviet game Tetris and Golf Game, both of which will be
supplied by third party software houses by year's end.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(TRENDS)(TYO)(00010)

NEW TRON MPU FROM THREE MAKERS}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- Fujitsu, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi
Electric have successfully codeveloped a high-performance 32-bit
microprocessor configured with TRON architecture.

The new Gmicro 300 microprocessor is the high-end of Gmicro Family,
following Gmicro 100 and 200. Integrated with about 900,000
transistors, the new chip will operate at 17 MIPS (million
instructions per second) when running at 25 megahertz.

The three makers are planning to ship engineering samples as early
as next spring, and moreover, are scheduled to develop higher end
Gmicro 400 and 500 microprocessors in 1990 and 1991 respectively.

(Ken Takahashi/19891109)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(SFO)(00001)

PRIME ANNOUNCES NEW LOW-COST UNIX SYSTEM}
NATICK, MASSACHUSETS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 9 (NB) -- Prime Computer has
introduced a new low end Unix system, the Prime EXL MBX Plus, based
on the Intel 386 microprocessor.

The system can connect up to 32 terminals and runs at speeds up to
5 MIPS (million instructions per second). Disk storage will be
available with capacities of up to 410 MB. The system sports
Prime's own Unix version, compatible with AT&T's System V.

Basic configuration costs less than $10,000 including 4 MB of
memory, 90 MB hard disk and a 1.2 MB floppy drive.

(Peter Vekinis/19891111)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LAX)(00002)

CONVEX INTROS NEW PRODUCTS, INKS SOFTWARE PACT}
RICHARDSON, TEXAS, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 07 (NB) -- In tandem
announcements, Convex Computer has announced four new
products and a software marketing agreement with Ingres Corp.
(formerly Relational Technology) of Alameda, CA.

The four additions to the COVUE line were introduced at Dexpo in
Anaheim, CA and are designed to give VAX users an easy migration
path the Convex supercomputer platform. COVUEnet/Multibus V2.0
and COVUEnet/VME V2.0 contain a major change from the earlier
versions of each. All protocol code has been moved from the
Excelan controller into the CPU side of the ConvexOS kernel
offering the capability to increase the number of logical links
to 100. Other features include an enhanced Network Control
Program facility, VMS mail support that allows mail to be
delivered over DECnet and compatibility with X and DECwindows.

Delivery of these two products will be available in about 90
days. Prices start at $16,500.

COVUElib V2.0 increases the number of routines by 98 for a
combined total of 183, making it easier for users to port VMS
applications written in C and FORTRAN to the Convex supercomputer
platform than was possible with the first version. The product
will be available in 90 days and is priced from $7,300.

COVUEbinary V1.0, a VAX Binary Data FIle Format Utility serves as
a bridge between VAX/VMS files and Convex FORTRAN. It's primary
operation is to convert files to a record format understood by
either the Convex or VAX system. Available in 90 days, this
product is listed with a starting price of $8,200.

In another announcement, Convex has signed an agreement with
Ingres under which Ingres will market its Ingres family of
products on Convex Supercomputers. Ingres is a leader in the
area of relational database management systems and is the
software often used by scientific, government, educational and
commercial organizations for large-scale production applications.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Donna Burke, Convex
Computer, 214-497-4230)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(LAX)(00003)

COROLLARY INTROS I486 MULTIPROCESSOR}
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1989 NOV 01 (NB) -- During UNIX Expo
in New York, Corollary introduced and demonstrated an i486
multiprocessor that runs existing off-the-shelf Unix and Xenix
applications.

The company also announced that its Symmetrical Multiprocessor
Extended Kernel, an extension to the SCO Xenix 386 and SCO Unix
V/386 operating systems, now supports the i486 as well.

In another announcement, Corollary has revealed a technology
agreement under which Corollary has ported its SCO Unix
multiprocessing kernel to the new Compaq Systempro personal
computer system that features multiple system processors.

(Janet Endrijonas/19891110/Press Contact: Judi Uttal, Corollary
Inc., 714-250-4040)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BRU)(00004)

NORSK DATA OFFERS SPEEDY TRANSACTION PROCESSOR}
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1989 NOV 11 (NB) -- The loss-making Norsk Data
computer maker has announced a Unix-based transactional system
capable of 100 transactions per second that would cost 10 times
cheaper than a traditional mainframe.

Despite serious financial troubles, Norsk Data, Norway's
biggest computer maker, is facing the challenge with formidable
power. It follows DEC and Tandem to become the third mini-maker to
venture into the transactional computer world.

Its Uniline 88 system, developed by Dolphin Server Technology,
a fully owned subsidiary, guarantees 100 MIPS and 100 transactions
per second. The Uniline is built around a 88000 microprocessor
and uses a 68020 for the I/O processor. Its entry model
comprises two cache memory units and a 8 MB internal memory.

Apart from the Uniline series, Norsk data equally unveiled two
high-end models of its ND5000 mini-series as well as a new
PC-line, built by Acer and Wyse Technology.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(BRU)(00005)

PYRAMID, PLEXUS WORLDWIDE JOINT MARKETING AGREEMENT}
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1989 NOV 11(NB) -- Pyramid Technology and
Plexus Computers have signed a worldwide joint marketing
agreement under which Pyramid's Unix-based mini and
mainframe computers will become large scale database
servers for Plexus' image processing systems.

The agreement is estimated to be worth over UKP2 million
during the first year, Pyramid said.

"Unix machines have already established a firm presence in the
on-line database market, and the next logical step must be the
development of integrated image management systems to support
strategies for compound information types,'' Martin Lambert,
Pyramid's European marketing manager said.

Pyramid as a supplier of database engines for fast, high
throughput environments, will be providing the back-end of the
Plexus XDP (Extended Data Processing) system. This provides text
and image management with facilities that include optical
character recognition, image enhancement and compression.

Plexus, a wholly owned subsidiary of Recognition Equipment
of Dallas, Texas, has already installed over 60 XDP
systems, using a MS-Windows-based PC AT as a workstation.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory meanwhile said it ordered two
Pyramid Series 9000 computer systems to map the surface of Venus
from data sent back from the Magellan space probe.

The Magellan satellite, recently launched by the Atlantis
Space Shuttle, is to scan the surface of Venus for geological and
geographical information. The telemetry data processed by the
Pyramid systems, will produce images of Venus's surface with
five times better resolution than previous missions.

(Eric Dauchy/19891111 : Press Contact : Pyramid : Martyn Lambert,
UK : 44-252-373035)


(CORRECTION)(UNIX)(TYO)(00006)

MATSUSHITA TO OFFER UNIX MACHINES}
TOKYO, JAPAN, 1989 OCT 16 (NB) -- In a recent report, Newsbytes
stated that Solbournes are compatible with Sun 3. In fact, it is
Solbourne Computer's Series 5 workstations which are compatible
with SUN 4, developed by Sun Microsystems in the U.S.

(Ken Takahashi/19891110)


(NEWS)(UNIX)(TOR)(00007)

AT&T CANADA ADDS RELEASE 4.0 TRAINING}
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, 1989 NOV 6 (NB) -- Following on its
parent's announcement of Unix System V Release 4.0, AT&T Canada
has added training for the new version to its classroom
curriculum.

Release 4.0 courses will be available starting early
in 1990, the company said. Classroom and videotaped training will
be available for data processing professionals and for non-
technical end users. One-day tutorials on the new release,
designed for people already familiar with Unix, will also be
offered in 1990.

(Grant Buckler/19891108/Press Contact: Dianne Bernez, AT&T
Canada, 416-756-5057)